Almanac: At the Capitol

There are many leadership models, but the one I like best can be defined this way: Create a vision of the future to which other people want to subscribe, then help clear away the barriers to achieving that vision.

A couple of weeks ago, Minnesota provided the world with a prime example of this kind of leadership when, after years and years of discussion and political struggle, the Legislature adopted — and Governor Pawlenty signed into law — the country's most ambitious renewable energy law, mandating that by 2025, at least 25 percent of electricity used in the state be generated by new sources of renewable energy.

While it's true that success has many parents, and the renewable energy bill owes its success to many in the Legislature and elsewhere, it would be hard to overstate the leadership and determination Sen. Ellen Anderson has shown on this issue. Without her, it's hard to imagine Minnesota would have come so far, so fast on green energy.

Anderson, who's been in the Senate for 15 years, got her first chops on renewable energy in 1994 when, as a junior legislator, she was involved in crafting the bill that resolved the controversy over Xcel's plan to increase its storage of nuclear waste at its Prairie Island plant. In exchange for granting that concession, the Legislature required that by the end of the 1990's, the utility company would have to either purchase or generate 825 Megawatts of wind energy per year. "That bill kick-started Minnesota's wind energy industry," Anderson recalls. "In a few short years, it went from infancy to maturity."

This year's renewable energy bill was co-sponsored by Anderson in the Senate and Rep. Aaron Peterson (DFL-Appleton) in the House. While hydropower can be among the new sources of green energy, without question the primary source will be wind power. That, in turn, represents a triple-benefit for the state. Not only will we get to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our dependence on fossil fuel — much of it imported from outside the United States — but because the law requires compliance, it guarantees the kind of returns that will bring investors and manufacturers flocking to Minnesota. "To me, it was critical that the goal be a requirement. Only that will bring investments and producers to the state," Anderson says.

In one form or another, Anderson has been pushing for this mandate for the past six years — or almost half her time in office — beginning with a bill she introduced in 2001 that would have required that 10 percent of the state's electrical use come from new sources of renewable energy by 2010. Passed by the Senate, her bill had to be watered down, making the goals voluntary rather than obligatory, in order to pass the Republican-controlled House.

Last fall's DFL takeover of the House set the stage for the new mandatory requirements, though other factors helped finally line up the stars for passage, namely, the growing scientific consensus on Global Warming and the release of the Commerce Department's Wind Integration Study that verified that Minnesota could integrate a 25 percent share of wind-generated electrical power with minimal difficulty. But Anderson's persistence and political courage were also key.

"Last session, the Governor tried to gut the bill by saying we should include hydropower from Canada in that 25 percent requirement, but we said 'No,'" Anderson says. "If you count sources that already exist, you don't end up having the kind of impact we wanted in terms of stimulating new industry in Minnesota. It was critical for us to insist that this be new sources of renewable energy." In the battle over whether to include existing hydro sources, Anderson concedes, "We won about 90 percent of that battle this year, allowing only a few things already in place to be counted under the law." But 90 percent is still enough to make Minnesota's requirements the toughest in the country.

It is extremely difficult for a politician to make the move from a district legislative seat to statewide office, at least without the backing of a national political fundraising machine. But given her leadership on the renewable issue it doesn't seem farfetched to suggest that Anderson could soon emerge as a formidable statewide candidate, should she so choose. Though she represents the Como Lake district in St. Paul, her advocacy of wind and ethanol have gained her support in southern and western Minnesota — normally Republican strongholds — and if the investments and manufacturing jobs she envisions materialize, she will also have a strong base of support in organized labor and on The Range. Meanwhile, whether you're a leftie worried about Polar bears or a conservative preoccupied by terrorism, you have to love renewable energy as an answer to both greenhouse gas and our dependence on overseas sources of fossil fuels.

So, who knows? With her record of visionary leadership — and the wind at her back — Anderson could maybe sail all the way to the Governor's office in 2010.